[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 169 (Saturday, December 18, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10689-S10690]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL

  Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, in November 1948--that was 1 year after my 
birth--President Harry Truman issued a highly controversial Executive 
Order. It called for beginning the process to bring to an end the 
longstanding policy of racial segregation in the Armed Forces of our 
Nation.
  Just a few years earlier, my father and three of my uncles had served 
on active duty for much of World War II. One of them--Bob Patton--was 
killed in a kamikaze attack on his aircraft carrier, the USS Suwannee 
in 1944. But all four of them--my dad and three uncles--were born and 
raised near the coal mining town of Beckley, WV, where my sister and I 
were born after the war.
  Neither my father nor my uncles ever discussed with us the 
implication of President Truman's Executive Order. Having said that, I 
later learned that many of the people in my native State opposed it, as 
did many people in Danville, VA, the last capital of the Confederacy 
and the place where my sister and I would grow up.
  The transition that followed President Truman's actions was not an 
easy one, but history would later show the steps he ordered 62 years 
ago this year were the right ones for our military and for our country.
  Twenty years after Truman's historic action, I was commissioned an 
ensign in the Navy and headed for Pensacola, FL, to begin the training 
that would enable me to become a naval flight officer. I had just 
graduated from Ohio State University--the Ohio State University, I 
guess--which I attended on a Navy ROTC scholarship. My sister was not 
in our ROTC unit at Ohio State. In fact, there were no women in that 
unit, and to the best of my knowledge there were no women in any of our 
ROTC units across the country nor in our military service academies in 
America either.
  A lot of people thought that was fine, and while there were women who 
served then in our Armed Forces, they were denied the opportunities 
that I and a lot of other men had that enabled us to advance in rank 
and to assume positions of ever greater responsibility. I went on to 
serve in Southeast Asia and retire as a Navy captain after 23 years of 
active and reserve duty. No women served with us in my active-duty 
squadron, but as the years passed that began to change. Young women 
gained admission into ROTC programs in colleges and universities across 
America and into our service academies as well. They became pilots, 
they flew airplanes, helicopters, served on ships, and someday, before 
too long, they will serve on some submarines as well.
  Today, women are admirals and they are generals. While there is still 
resistance to the transition that continues to this day--and much of 
that is understandable--most of us who have lived through it would 
agree this change has helped to make our military and our Nation 
stronger.
  Today, we face a different kind of transition--a challenging one, 
too--and that is whether to end the policy of don't ask, don't tell. 
Confronted with this question and how to answer it, I have sought the 
counsel of a number of people over the past year whose wisdom I value. 
Foremost among them has been our Secretary of Defense Bob Gates. He has 
graciously shared his thoughts on this difficult and contentious issue 
with me and with many of my colleagues, both in private and in public 
forums.

[[Page S10690]]

  Today I stand in agreement with the Secretary and with ADM Mike 
Mullen, the Chairman of our Joint Chiefs of Staff. The time has come to 
repeal the law that requires young men and women to lie about who they 
are in order to serve their country.
  Having said that, however, I also agree with them that this 
transition--like several of the others I have talked about--must be 
done in a way that eases the military into this change over time so 
that it does not adversely affect or undermine our military readiness, 
our ability to recruit, and our morale.
  The proposal we approved an hour or so ago seeks to do exactly that. 
It will empower Secretary Gates and our other military leaders to 
carefully implement a repeal of don't ask, don't tell in the months 
ahead. Repeal is not something that is going to happen overnight. The 
Secretary and the Joint Chiefs are going to do this in a deliberate and 
responsible way, and it will take some time. Our military leaders have 
made it clear they want Congress to act now, though, to enable them to 
begin to implement this repeal of don't ask, don't tell in a thoughtful 
manner rather than to have the courts force them into it overnight.
  I support that approach. I support the approach recommended by our 
military leaders. I stand behind Secretary Gates and our Nation's other 
military leaders as they prepare to lead our military and our Nation 
through this historic transition, rather than to allow the courts to do 
it for us in ways that we may some day live to regret.
  Mr. President, with that, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.

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